nction was evanescent. The office of justiciar in the
city was twice granted _eo nomine_ to Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of
Essex, and it is twice mentioned as having been held by one named Gervase,
who (there is reason to believe) is identical with Gervase de Cornhill, a
Sheriff of London in 1155 and 1156; but the office became extinct at the
accession of Henry II.(107)

(M72)

The events which followed Henry's decease afford us another instance of
the futility of all attempts at this early period to settle the succession
to the crown before the throne was actually vacant. The King's nephew,
Stephen of Blois, and the nobility of England had sworn to accept the
King's daughter Matilda, wife of Geoffery of Anjou, as their sovereign on
the death of her father; yet when that event took place in 1135, Stephen,
in spite of his oath, claimed the crown as nearest male heir of the
Conqueror's blood.(108)

There was no doubt of his popularity, whilst Matilda on the other hand
injured her cause by marrying an Angevin. On the continent a bitter feud
existed between Norman and Angevin; in England the Norman had steadily
increased in favour, and England's crown was Stephen's if he had courage
enough to seize it.

Landing on the Kentish coast, his first reception was far from
encouraging. Canterbury and Dover, held by the Earl of Gloucester, refused
to acknowledge him and closed their gates on his approach. Undismayed by
these rebuffs, Stephen pushed on to London, where he was welcomed by every
token of good will. The Londoners had been no party to the agreement to
recognise Matilda as Henry's successor; they had become accustomed to
exercising a right of sharing in the choice of a king who should reign
over them, and they now chose Stephen. "It was their right, their special
privilege," said they, "on the occasion of the king's decease, to provide
another in his place."(109) There was no time to be lost, the country was
in danger, Stephen was at hand, sent to them, as they believed, by the
goodness of Providence. They could not do better than elect him: and
elected he was by the assembled aldermen or eldermen (_majores natu_) of
the City.

Such is the story of Stephen's election as given by the author of the
"Gesta Stephani," one who wrote as an eye-witness of what took place, but
whose statements cannot always be taken as those of an independent
chronicler of events. Informal as this election may have been, it marks an
import